Republicans face an agonizing choice between defying Trump and abandoning a tenet of conservatism

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With a Senate vote on $2,000 stimulus checks looming, Republicans face an agonizing choice between defying Trump and abandoning a tenet of conservatism

By Mia Jankowicz



The prospect of $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks reaching Americans is just a Senate vote away — and the situation poses an agonizing choice for Republicans.

The House, powered by its Democratic majority, on Monday passed a bill to increase the $600 checks in the $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus bill to $2,000. President Donald Trump unexpectedly called for the larger checks last week.

Following the House vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, pledged in a statement to bring it to the Senate on Tuesday — putting Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who decides the order of business, in a sticky position.

Increasing the checks to $2,000 would cost an additional $464 billion, The Washington Post reported.

Despite Trump's intervention, that's much more than most Republicans, including McConnell, have been willing to spend. And for the party, the picture is much more complicated.

There are several issues at play for Republicans if they vote against raising the direct payments:

Defying a coalition of sorts between Trump and the Democrats.
Appearing heartless by denying a highly popular measure during the coronavirus pandemic.
Adhering to principles of fiscal conservatism.
Maintaining control of the Senate, which hinges on runoff elections in Georgia where the stimulus is emerging as a key campaign issue.

GOP priorities are not as adamant as they appeared

Democrats have long desired another round of direct payments to Americans in a pandemic relief bill.

But in the frenzied later stages of negotiations, the party's key players largely dropped it from their wish list as McConnell held a firm line on spending.

In the fall, Trump said he wanted large payments for Americans. But focused as he was on challenging the result of the presidential election, he took a back seat for much of the stimulus negotiations.

With Trump preoccupied, McConnell signaled in early December that Trump would sign into law only a much smaller package that followed classic Republican ideals of fiscal conservatism.

The first round of stimulus had already caused the national debt to spiral, Forbes reported.

"At the risk of repeating something we all know, making law will require not just the Senate's approval, but also the signature of the President of the United States," McConnell said on December 2, continuing to argue for spending no more than about $500 billion.

McConnell's hard-line stance ultimately pushed Democrats to agree to reduce the cost of their demands by more than half.

But stimulus checks came back on the horizon in mid-December when McConnell unexpectedly backed the inclusion of $600 payments. He had realized how badly the issue was affecting the Republican candidates in the runoff elections, according to The New York Times.

Those elections could tip the balance of the Senate from GOP hands into Democratic ones — and they threaten McConnell's position as majority leader.

So on December 21, both chambers of Congress passed a $900 billion bill that included $600 checks for some Americans, fully expecting the president's signature.

But the next day, Trump blazed back onto the scene. In a video he tweeted, he trashed the bill as faulty on several levels and called for $2,000 checks.

Leading Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, quickly embraced the call. The House quickly put together a separate bill to increase the $600 checks to $2,000 checks, though it doesn't address any of Trump's other objections.

Now it awaits a Senate vote, in which Republicans would have an awkward choice between giving Democrats what they want or defying the president.

Any senator could block Schumer's bid to bring the bill to a vote on Tuesday. It leaves all eyes on McConnell, whose role as the majority leader gives him the power to decide the order of business.

He has remained tight-lipped on the question in his most recent statements.

One option could be to package the $2,000 checks with other adjustments to the bill that Trump demanded. But the likely Democratic objections could make the time frame too tight; Trump's delay in signing the stimulus bill into law has already cost millions of Americans unemployment aid.

Trump's pull on the party may also be waning. The lame-duck president is set to leave office on January 20.

But his recent intervention shows he can still turn the tables dramatically when he wants to.

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